Date of Award

2020-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Computer Engineering

Advisor(s)

Rodrigo Romero

Second Advisor

Joel Quintana

Abstract

Additive manufacturing, which is also known as three-dimensional printing, in space is one of the most promising technologies advancing current capabilities for in-orbit space manufacturing and assembly. Additive manufacturing contributes to the reduction of cost per kilogram and number of launches, thus facilitating extraterrestrial colonization and deep-space exploration. The state of the art includes advancing efforts inside the International Space Station (ISS). However, the ISS is a controlled environment and, to the best of our knowledge, no spacecraft or satellite has performed additive manufacturing tasks in the extreme environment of outer space. In this work a 1U CubeSat named Orbital Factory II (OF2) was developed to perform a technological capability demonstration featuring a 1-D printing mechanism that will deposit conductive ink and simulate repairing of an electric circuit. OF2 was launched on a Northrop Grumman Antares space rocket on November 2, 2019 and it was deployed from the CRS2 NG-12 (Cygnus) on January 31, 2020. This document presents the payload developed and the libraries coded for the on-board computer (OBC) for this OF2 CubeSat. This is the first satellite ever launched by the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

66 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Eduardo Macias-Zugasti

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